1. Commuting: An Untapped Opportunity for Smart Brands
Commuting:
An Untapped
Opportunity for
Smart Brands
As explored by the Nurun Lab
Quick Takeaway
Time wasted commuting
is at an all time high and
becoming a major social
problem. Smart brands
can help the consumer
by turning wasted com-
mute time into useful
time.
2. Commuting: An Untapped Opportunity for Smart Brands
Commuting: An Untapped when there’s a good radio show on,
Opportunity for Smart but during those other four days I
Brands mostly feel like shooting myself, said
Rachel, a 28-year-old participant.
Introduction
This sign indicates How can brands add consumer value The Need: According to research from
a concept or a pro-
during the commute? the Association of Publishing Agencies,
totype imagined by 67% of respon-
the nurun Lab ba-
dents were hun-
sed on research.
gry for brands to
provide them
with more inter-
esting and exclu-
sive content on
their iPad, with
lifestyle (38%),
games (27%) and
entertainment
(23%) the top
areas they would
like brands to
create more
apps for.
The average daily commute time in
Smart brands can help the consumer
OECD countries (Organization for Eco-
by turning wasted commute time into
nomic Co-operation and Development
establish in 1960 by 20 countries) is 38 useful time.
On average, Americans spend minutes.
16 minutes per day on Facebook. With growing numbers of the popula- Entertainment
tion living in the suburbs, commuting Commuters taking public transporta-
time is on the rise. According to the tion use this time to catch up on the
Nurun Lab’s ethnographic research and news (the explosion of the free press)
data supported by Statistics Canada, games (the rise of smartphones and
commuting time contributes to the portable consoles) and music (MP3
feeling of being trapped in ones daily players). To fight the monotony of the
routine. daily commute, people have developed
alternative means of entertainment:
The roads here are a disaster and it’s 30% of commuters use video apps with
only getting worse... No, it’s not a to- the average video duration on the rise
tal loss of time maybe once a week (4.5 minutes compared to 2 minutes in
3. Commuting: An Untapped Opportunity for Smart Brands
2003). Car commuters, on the other
hand, listen to the radio and absorb
content with a specific level of concen-
tration and attention. While digital of-
fers alternative ways to engage with
information (podcast and 3G), apps
No, Podcast is not dead remain an underutilized area that could
A buzzword in 2005, the podcast offer enhanced options for the com-
is often thought to be dead. But muter, including faster downloads and The Emergency Voice Reader prevents
with more than 8 million adults commuters from being trapped in the
enhanced streaming methods.
in the UK (16% of the population)
metro with nothing else to do than wait.
who have downloaded a podcast -
more than the number of Twitter Ideas in Practice
users in the UK - and almost 4 Blancspot: The app takes an artistic ap- tion to the iPhone instapaper app,
million listening to at least one a
proach to the news by combining im- which compiles articles and web pages
week, this is not the case.
Providing content at the point of
agery with editorial content and offers that the user can’t immediately read.
need is the key for success. Abso- links to related articles and Twitter The Lab sees it as a tool that could be
lut radio in London has reported feeds. utilized by any media source, Telco or
that 76% of all podcast downloads Vodafone Content Channel: The first public transportation system.
had been completed via a mobile
channel in Europe offers customers a
device in July 2011.
regularly updated selection of Voda- I actually love my commute. I love to
fone serves as well as news, sports and read in the train and sometimes wish
gaming apps. it could last longer – I travel an hour
BMW Connected: The app lets drivers each way. But what I hate is how the
connect to Internet radio stations, re- closer we get to downtown how
ceive status messages from Twitter and crowded it gets. I think the Montreal
Facebook and review iPhone calendar metro is actually facing a serious
events through the iDriver controller. spatial problem these days, said Julie,
Chromaroma: The online, multi-player a 38-year-old participant.
game takes commuters on travel mis-
sions through London, England’s trans- Productivity
portation system. Another perspective when examining
the commuting problem is to offer ad-
Insight from the Lab ditional ways that people can use their
Commuters experience frustration commuting time for other purposes.
when, in an overcrowded subway or Modern train systems promise that
bus, they can’t read the newspaper or you’re not only traveling, you’re work-
reach their smartphone. ing, watching a movie, reader or sleep-
Imagine if a brand could provide a tool ing. The perception that travel is a
or app that would launch a voice reader waste of time vanishes.
of preselected texts with the touch of a
button. This would be a valuable addi-
4. Commuting: An Untapped Opportunity for Smart Brands
• Toys R Us QR Codes: The toy retailer
Is it possible for brands to find digital makes holiday shopping easy with the
ways to reach a similar perception for QR code-enabled virtual store. It
commuting time? made its debut on New York bill-
boards and 40 New Jersey transit sta-
Ideas in Practice tions. Sears and Kmart recently
• Dominos Pizza: The brand recently launched QR-enabled catalogues.
launched a mobile pizza app that lets
users order pizza from their iPad and
have it at their doorstep the moment
they get home. Dominos revealed it
had taken 1 million in mobile pizza
sales within a week of the app’s
launch.
• Microsoft Tags: Captures consumers
in the moment, engaging them any-
time, anywhere on their smartphones.
At Dallas-Fort Worth International
Airport passengers can use Tag to get Insights from the Lab
discounts and coupons at shops and • Given the growing popularity of web-
restaurants. sites like e-how.com, provide easy
access to academic courses or DIY
branded content. Any brand could
potentially endorse this idea, the most
obvious being categories where the
customer needs to develop his/her
expertise to make informed decisions.
• Given the growing number of di-
vorces and the rush of urban life, a lot
of urban singles in their 30s to 50s are
having a hard time to meet the right
person. This led to speed dating con-
cepts and popularized TV shows like
Sex and the City. We imagined a ser-
vice like Meetic or ReseauContact
could propose a car date during com-
muting time to get to know better a
potential significant other. Login/
Logout principles associated with
GPS technologies could contribute to
the safety of such a service.
DIY classes optimized and simplified for commuting conditions
5. Commuting: An Untapped Opportunity for Smart Brands
I know there’s an app that’s been de-
veloped to help you park your car.
But I just don’t trust that people will
have the discipline to mark when
they leave... However old school this
may sound, I trust larger systems of
information with this sort of stuff,
said Tyler, a 34-year-old participant.
Brands also have the power to encour-
age the usage of digital tools with
CRM-based rewards. This could result
in an image benefit (a brand involved in
Dating carpool: could commuting real people’s problems).
time become a way to date?
Ideas in Practice
• To think out of the box, the Lab sug- • Roadify: The free app connects driv-
gests this problem framing to online ers to the parking and public transit
supermarkets: how could you make it in their neighbourhood, all through
possible to purchase food for a four- the user’s mobile phone.
person household in 15 minutes, on a • Zipcar: members can now reserve a
smartphone, with poor connectivity, vehicle around the corner or across
on a crowded bus.? the globe, manage reservations, honk
• On the same principle as Amazon the vehicle’s horn and lock and
Mechanical Turk, a company could unlock the Zipcar using an iPhone.
pay for tasks doable on a smartphone • The Exit Strategy: this app tells NYC
(for example, recognize images) dur- subway commuters which side of the
ing commuting time. train the doors will open on.
Efficiency Insights from the Lab
This is an ambitious promise that de- In the US, the percentage of workers
pends on public investment. Large who travel to work by car, truck, or van
Is the one click Smart alone is as an average 78, according to a
companies like IBM are investing mil-
Quick Fridge Filler pos- 2004 survey of the US census bureau.
lions to better understand where and
sible? We imagined a system that matches up
how time is wasted in complex systems.
But, start-ups should not be discour- commuters based on a similar driving
aged by big-brand involvement. It’s routine, rather than building a pool
about inventing smart, agile solutions around a single driver. This would al-
to commuters’ problems. low commuters to drive on alternate
days, cutting down on gas consumption
and mileage.
6. Commuting: An Untapped Opportunity for Smart Brands
Conclusion
It is clear from the Lab’s ethnographic
research and authoritative resources in
the field that commuters are looking
for ways to be entertained during their
commute. Whether it’s public trans-
portation, walking or driving, the time
spent commuting is inefficient. While
consumers are quick to dismiss adver-
tising, the commercial power of apps is
proving the opposite. According to the
study by APA, 81% of respondents indi-
cated that they have sough out a further
interaction with the brand as a result of
using an app, 19% said they bought a
product or service, 29% considered
buying a product or service and 33%
visited a brand’s website.
Thus, smart brands can certainly help
the consumer (and improve their brand
image) by turning the commute into a
productive use of time. And digital of-
fers the answers.
A point of view developed
by the nurun Lab
In practice: try to ‘own’ some
commuting time
Brainstorm to imagine how your
product or service could exist in a
world where advertising and stores
would only exist during commut-
ing.
How could your company or cate-
gory be legitimate if it were com-
mercializing a digital product or
service for commuters ? The nurun Lab team gathers anthropolo-
gists, design thinking experts, strategic
planners and new tech experts.
7. Commuting: An Untapped Opportunity for Smart Brands
Appendix
USING TWITTER TO DETECT PATTERNS
At the Lab, we gather meaningful tweets to detect patterns on a subject, a category or a
brand. Tweets are a gold mine for marketers: people express frustrations and desires without
being asked to do so. This canvas demonstrates the commuters’ problems and search for
solutions.
8. Commuting: An Untapped Opportunity for Smart Brands
APPENDIX : USING TWITTER TO DETECT PATTERNS
